New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-07-25
A MILLION LOST IN TIES.
appoprED swNDLING OF THE MISSOURI
PACIFIC.
a STORY CIRCULATED IN ST. LOUIS THAT vAei
.uwsu HAS GONE INTO THE POCKETS OF con-
TRAcTORA

a CYRCULAIEO
sux HAS GONE INTO THE POCKETS OF CON-
1RAcToRs
,pY TELEGRAPH 10 TIE rRIBuNEl
81. LOUIS, July 24.-It was stated In Tho Gtoee
Osmocrat this morning that tho Missouri
Paoi6c Railway system has been swindied
ant Of 81, 100000 In three years oy means
Of contracts for ties, and that M aouid was
greatly alarmed by tho discovery Of these
tss some time ago. and 1t 10 said that 70 the sucoes
mon Of surprisss which greeted him In his pro
Iongaa investigation of the matter his decline In
r,..,odistsly upon his arrival In st. Louie MI
f,o.ld summoned well-known timber dealer from
the South, and for whole day the two were
olosetsd IN tho special The next day locomo-
tive with . tender was hitched to tho car ana
vhsksd over the Iron Mountain rosd Inc Train
never stopped until it got to Bald Knob Iex..
,rhere y conference was held with A. +. Smith, OF
A, y. Smith & Co Mr.. Gould tooK copious notes
If all that Mr. Smith had to say. Tne next place
,,s;ted was Guliver. Ark, on branch OF the iron
Maintain road, and hero long and earnest chat
20. had with Mr.. Lumberson. of Lumberson @ Co
Messra Smith g. Co., and LumbsrSon q Co were
among the sub-contractors who had furnished Mr.
Conld's railroads with ties, and II was reported
that when these gentlemen discovered that the
rr;css at which they had been induced to furnish
the ties was much lower than the amount charged
the company by the chief contractor they had
little hssitancy In helping Mr., Gould 70
knowledge of the facts
Mr.. Gould discovered that at Bald Knob. iui'i-
yer anc Forest City, the price charged for railroad
ties was from "a to % ceuts apiece. ana when no
compared these sums with what had been paid 10
Contractor Cowan he found that the company had
the worst of it to the extent of nearly 10 cents on
every tie. In other words, the ties that had
bcen furnished by the contractors for 81
cents cost the company at least 30 cents. On
dozen ties or so of course, this wouldn't have
been SO appalling. but with the knowledge that 1t
affected millions Of ties, Mr. Gould sighed
In Texas timber comes nigh. Among the sub
contractors in Texas were Tom" Coleman and
William Watkins. The lattcr keeps grocery store
in Texarkana, but whether either he or Mr.. Cole
man helped along the investigation is not known.
Il is asserted that timber ties for
which his railroad had paid the neat sum OF 50
cen s piece, had been supplied within ten miles
of Texarkana for 20 cents, while in other parts OF
Texas the cost to the contractor had been from 20
10 80. while the price to the Missouri Pacinc was
80 centsL
The reason for the discrepancy in the prices asked
ia Arkansas and Texas is that in the former state
the timber is plentiful and cheap while IN Texas 1t
is scarce.
deeper insight into the extent of this corner In
the tie market revealed that it reached out over the
railway network of the South and West including
not only the Iron Mountain Road and its many
hrsnches Int the Missouri, Kansas and Texas,
Chicago. Burlington and Quincy, Rock Island and and
even others 1t was discovered also tnas
growth. but that II had been born
Of long and active head; =, ,Sras and hns9 ms9
snJ md nro6table wears. The number of ties for
which such exorbtant prices had been paid ex-
ceeded 10 600 900 aud that at the least
the Missouri Pacific and Its Iron tributaries iost
81. .0OO, 900.